Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Buddy Holly Story

[migrated from myspace blog]

One of my favorite musical sequences in any movie is the opening to The Buddy Holly Story in the roller rink. Gary Busey, Charles Martin Smith, and Don Stroud were playing their own instruments live in front of the camera, starting off with some country-gospel tunes, but then moving on to songs "for the boppers, those of you who bop." At the opening chords of 'Rock Around with Ollie Vee' mothers were dragging their kids away from the devil music. At the end of the song the extras playing the crowd were so enthusiastic that the actors nearly broke character. There's a great shot of Charles Martin Smith holding his hand up waiting to count off for the next song while the teenage girls are clapping, and he gets this embarassed smile on his face. It's the real thing. They're so overwhelmed by the crowd and he's just waiting for the director to call "cut", but it never happens, and they have to play on.

Some people feel that these three actors performed some of the songs even better than Buddy and the Crickets did and the music is available on it's own soundtrack. Unfortunately it's out of print and ridiculously expensive (about $42 on amazon.)

As for the movie itself, there is alway controversy anytime there's a movie made about a real person, especially when done without that person's input.

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